As advertisers struggle with Reels, Meta tries to ease them into the format, including, sources say, by encouraging them to test their video ads on TikTok first
Bloomberg : Tweets: @sarahfrier , @robleathern , @zackkanter , @adamnash , @pt , @can , @can , @can , @pt , @can , @can , @iwriteok , @pt , @pt , @can , @iwriteok , @robleathern , @pt , @pt , @pt , @can , @vectorpoem , @can , @can , @glennf , and @pt See also Mediagazer Tweets: Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier : Meta is betting its future on Reels, the TikTok-copycat videos that are taking over Instagram and Facebook. Advertisers say the format is hard to get right, and have been slow to shift budgets over: https://www.bloomberg.com/... Rob Leathern / @robleathern : @can ... Point is still valid: you are combining a large number of things together of varying degrees of risk that I've not yet seen a good broadly agreed upon framework for assessing. I'd like to think we can work as an industry to fix many of them. Zack Kanter / @zackkanter : @pt @AliBHamed Sure, it cost small businesses $100B, but at least we have bad ads now. Adam Nash / @adamnash : @pt ... was just commenting on this. Apple succeeded in framing this around privacy, and Facebook didn't get people to see the real impact of this change on small businesses & startups. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Apple factored in how bad this might be for mobile app distribution. Parker / @pt : @can @adamnash As far as how you get accurate data, if you ask “would you like to share data with this app, which will not share it with 3rd parties but will use it to let small businesses present you with more relevant ads *just like Apple does*” you would see wildly different responses. @can : @pt @adamnash It's not a small distinction. Apple did NOT prevent apps to collect data. It prevents (via contracts and some fear) them from sharing data with 3rd parties. Apple does have that data but users can also as easily opt out. I'd buy an argument users shouldn't be opted in to that. @can : @pt @adamnash You know apps are still allowed to track themselves, FB is losing money because the apps can't share it with FB which is the 3rd party. @can : @pt @adamnash What did Apple break? If enough people decided to give apps permission, we'd be exactly where we were. Are you against users deciding that companies should be able to do with their data? Parker / @pt : @can @adamnash Adjust message to be clear, pt stands. What I have read is that Apple is getting users to opt out of 3rd party data uses Apple employs. I personally think it's bad for society for cos or govt to limit (almost?) any ability to use data to improve app experiences, including ads. @can : @robleathern ... Behavioral profiling? Building dossiers on people? You can call it whatever but as long as there's a way to run a “select * from users where abortion_interest==1” query, you are doing something societally dangerous. Small businesses existed before FB. @can : @pt @adamnash How should have Apple framed the question that'd be more honest? Open for your suggestions. Also, it's not like they were punching down. Facebooks bread and butter is ads and they couldn't get anyone to care because they are morally corrupt and people don't believe Zuck. Robert Evans / @iwriteok : i hope Facebook collapses and everyone there loses their job. I hope Mark Zuckerberg walks into the sea and is never seen again. burn you fuckers. Parker / @pt : @can @adamnash It's not punching down, but it's anti-competitive and thus bad for society. It's also hypocritical, which is Apple's biggest problem. Personally I'm angrier at goverment for allowing it than for Apple to do it. It's not Apple's job to be ethical, though we would love that. Parker / @pt : @can @adamnash Definitely debatable and we should have that debate directly! The problem with the “user choice” is it implies choice is good even if people make bad (or them or society) choices! Like if everybody chooses to smoke we can use policy to modify that behavior. @can : @pt @adamnash You haven't answered my question though. Why did everyone ask apps to not track them? Robert Evans / @iwriteok : this is honestly the coolest thing I've learned in a long time. As a former Cracked employee it's nice to see Facebook's profits get nuked because some other company flipped a switch https://twitter.com/... Rob Leathern / @robleathern : @can ... “Tracking” is at best confusing and at worst a disingenuous mishmash of a variety of things (of varying degrees of risk to end users). This direction makes sense but this has been done in a very broad way that hurts many small businesses Parker / @pt : @can @adamnash I don't believe you've presented an intellectually honest frame. You know as well as I how you ask questions has a massive influence on how users behave. Saying “users want X” because Apple made them do X is not a serious argument. Parker / @pt : @adamnash Personally I just see it as an abject failure of tech journalism that Apple is fucking small businesses while the FTC tries to prevent them from even competing with future Apple products and the public is happy about all of it. I don't think we can credit Apple, they got lucky. Parker / @pt : @can @adamnash I agree with Apple, it's perfectly acceptable for companies to use this data to serve ads, as they do. Where I disagree with them is when they use their market power engineer a situation in which only they can do this. @can : @pt @adamnash I think it's arguable this is bad for society. I am in favor of banning behavioral tracking entirely. Wait until DeSantis requires Facebook to turn in information about everyone who's searched for abortion on Instagram in 2025 and you'll agree too. @vectorpoem : tapping “Ask App not to Track” is a bit like turning off motion smoothing on your non-tech-savvy parents' TV, except it's helping to slowly murder one of the worst companies on the planet. everyone do their part! https://twitter.com/... @can : @pt @adamnash It's a valid business strategy to bet on users changing their minds and policy following it. I think Apple isnt altruistic but they are betting on the right horse. Behavioral tracking is an antisocial phenomenon and the tide is turning both on personal and policy side. @can : @robleathern ... I don't trust the industry to self regulate here, especially given how Facebook has been so reckless in the past and their executives have apparently zero moral compass. It's writing a foreword for Xi's book one day, and it's “China is evil” the other. Glenn Fleishman / @glennf : Weird how Facebook revealed its entire business is built on the non-consensual use of private information. https://twitter.com/... Parker / @pt : That's gotta be what, $100B+ of small businesses revenue? Anybody got a good methodology for estimating this? Definitely hilarious however big it is tho. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Meta has staked Instagram and Facebook's next act on Reels, but the advertisers it needs have been slow to move money into a format they find hard to get right. The backdrop is rough: after Apple's ATT changes drove up Meta's ad prices, some advertisers shifted their ad budgets to Google, Amazon, and TikTok, and Facebook had already warned of continued headwinds heading into late 2021.
Now Bloomberg reports Meta's own workaround: encouraging advertisers to test their video ads on TikTok first, then bring what works to Reels. It is an unusual concession — the company copying TikTok is telling its customers the rival network is where creative gets validated.
First-order effects
- Advertisers get a sanctioned testing workflow — validate video creative on TikTok, then port winners to Reels — lowering the perceived risk of shifting budget into Meta's short-video inventory.
- Meta's sales motion effectively cedes creative-standard-setting to TikTok: the copycat now routes its customers through the original before monetizing them.
Second-order effects
- TikTok captures extra ad-testing volume even from Meta's own push, reinforcing the budget drift that began when ATT-driven price increases pushed advertisers toward cheaper alternatives.
- With Apple simultaneously expanding App Store ad placements (Today homepage and app pages), Meta faces pressure on two fronts at once — rivals taking share of both performance and brand video spend.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, short-form vertical video consolidates as the default ad unit across platforms, and competition shifts from who invents formats to who offers better distribution, measurement, and pricing — a dynamic that compounds the ATT-era pressure already contributing to the wider junk-ad epidemic in a slowing market.
The trend: Short-form video advertising is converging on a single TikTok-defined format, forcing copycat platforms like Meta to compete on reach and measurement rather than creative differentiation.